At a scientific meeting on March 25, AIDS experts said HIV/AIDS researchers must start fresh and gain more fundamental knowledge about HIV before an effective vaccine against the virus can be developed, the New York Times reports (nytimes.com, 3/26).

“Everything is on the table,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at the meeting on how to best spend federal HIV vaccine research money.

Also on March 25, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation called for more funds to be spent on HIV/AIDS prevention, testing and treatment, as opposed to vaccine research, citing the failure of recent vaccines.

However, according to the Times, Dr. Fauci rejected that proposal, saying “under no circumstances will we stop AIDS vaccine research.”